They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments.
They who simply read, that the blind had wandered, deduce this meaning, that the blind were polluted in the streets, even because there was filth everywhere. They, indeed, come near to the meaning of the Prophet, but they do not clearly explain what he intended. I regard it therefore beyond dispute, that the people are here compared to the blind, but it does not yet appear for what purpose.
The prophets and priests bear chief fault, not that the people were innocent, but these watchmen should have warned them and did not. They shed the blood of the righteous to please their people and advance their false religion. Nothing ripens a nation for ruin faster than the sins of those set to teach the truth.
AI summary
Commenting on Lamentations 4:13-20
They have wandered as blind men in the streets,.... That is, the false prophets and wicked priests; and may be understood either literally, that when the city was taken, and they fled, they were like blind men, and knew not which way to go to make their escape, but wandered from place to place, and could find no way out; or spiritually, though they pretended...